


let's practise all the breathing

by sysupportgroup



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: (no one actually drowns), Alternate Universe - Lifeguards, M/M, Mentioned Kwon Soonyoung | Hoshi, Mentioned Lee Jihoon | Woozi, Mentioned Wen Jun Hui | Jun, Minor Kim Mingyu/Kwon Soonyoung, Miscommunication, Small Towns, Summer, Swimming Pools, brief mentions of drowning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-25
Updated: 2018-10-25
Packaged: 2019-08-04 21:29:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16354613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sysupportgroup/pseuds/sysupportgroup
Summary: “You’re not meant to be in there!” Seokmin blurts instinctually, nearly wobbling off the top of the public pool’s gate.Minghao, bobbing on the top of the dark water, casting a pale figure, lovely and haunting, cracks an eye open to look at him.“Neither are you.” He says, amused.Seokmin squints at him, hunched over the top of the gate. If he lets go, he might fall and the ground is looking awfully hard and capable-of-bone-breaking tonight. “You said there was someone trespassing at the pool and I’d better come check it out.” It’s meant to come out accusing but ends up soft and uncertain at the edges, words like cotton fuzz catching in his mouth.Minghao hums, pulling himself lazily to the pool edge, “I didn’t lie.”"You also didn’t say it was you who was trespassing.” Seokmin mumbles.





	let's practise all the breathing

**Author's Note:**

> claimed song: no better by lorde
> 
> full disclosure this was entirely inspired by the line that gave this fic its title. sometimes you just really need summer-y poolside makeouts~

Minghao’s back.

Gossip flies around fast in a small community of nosy Asian mothers, news flying from household to household across joint Taichi classes and weekly brunches. Seokmin’s mother heard it from Auntie Kwon who bumped into Auntie Hong in the small Asian grocery on the corner, who'd in turn heard it from Auntie Yoon when she went over to drag her son back from the Hong’s place, who'd apparently saw Minghao return when she was collecting Saturday’s mail.

He looks ‘citied up’, his mother tells him, new haircut and new clothes that no one could possibly procure within the limits of their town.

“Are you going over to say hello?” She adds belatedly, right after she drops the metaphorical bomb and graciously ignores the bit of mashed banana that falls out of his agape mouth. She’s already turned to their fridge to rummage through it for some homemade radish kimchi to send over, “He’s a nice boy.”

“Um,” Seokmin finally regains control of his jaw and shuts it before the floor gets splattered in could-be baby food. He fidgets in place, tugging at the hem of his swimming trunks, “not sure yet. He might be busy uh, catching up with everyone else.”

Seokmin’s mother pauses in her questing.

“...I’ll text him later.” He says weakly, a compromise. She hums neutrally but shuts the fridge.

It’s a win for now. 

“Maybe he’ll drop by the pool,” he scratches the back of his neck awkwardly, knowing full well that Minghao very much won’t. He never seemed too keen on dipping his toes into excessive amounts of chlorine and unknown amounts of piss, “I’ll say hi if I see him there, okay?” He re-adjusts the strap of his duffel bag and tosses his banana skin in the bin, looking towards the front door pointedly. “Speaking of… I gotta head to work now Mom.” 

“Alright.” His mother walks him to the door, fussing over his hair as he slips his feet into his work-specific flip-flops. They’re a very professional bright yellow and blue with cartoon suns on the soles. “Be safe, keep others safe.” She sweeps him into a hug before he steps off the porch. “Love you, okay?”

“Love you too,” he wraps his arms around her waist and smiles into her shoulder even though he has to dip his head downwards to fit in there. He always gets a little shy saying it to her face, “I’ll be back for dinner.”

“It’s chicken wings tonight,” she beams and pats his shoulder. Seokmin’s stomach gives a little rumble of happiness at the news, “now off you go before you clock in late.”

“Keen to get me out of the house, huh?” He teases, giving her one last wave before beginning to traipse down the road to the public pool two blocks away. “Bye Mom!”

“Make sure you put on sunblock, Seokmin Lee!” She calls out behind him, attracting the judgmental gaze of Mrs Murphy next door who’s in the midst of watering her dying gardenias. The summer has started with an almighty blast and no living thing is safe, no matter how much of a naturally talented gardener Mrs Murphy boasts on being. “I’m not buying any more aloe for you, it’s too expensive here!”

“Okay Mom!” He yells back, whirling around one hundred and eighty degrees to reply. Mrs Murphy winces and hurries indoors, leaving her poor gardenias behind. If he squints, Seokmin imagines he can see them slowly curling inwards, browning to a crisp. “See you later!”

 

//

 

Out of all the part-time jobs to get, working as a lifeguard isn’t all that bad. He’s always loved the sun, has been compared to it on more than one occasion, and it’s basically his ideal to be out there all day. He’s only ever gotten sunburnt once, when he’d been rostered on for eight hours on a particularly blistering day and Mingyu had misplaced their giant two litre bottle of sunscreen. The kids and senior citizens that frequent it aren’t bad either; the regulars have warmed up to his face by now and there have only been a few peeing incidents he’s had to personally take care of. The only negative thing about work is the smell of chlorine that attaches itself to him like a monster duckling that mistakenly imprinted, and the occasional middle-finger-flipping PDA-partaking teenager taking up the indoor walking lanes. 

“Seokku!” Mingyu slaps him on the back as soon as he skips through the door, shoving the communal sunscreen into his grasp. Seokmin stumbles a few steps back with its weight. “You’re on for the outdoor pool today.”

“Cool,” Seokmin grimaces, pulling himself to his full height and dumping his duffel bag on one of the metal locker room benches, “but why? Aren’t you rostered there today?”

Mingyu’s face falls immediately, eyes shifting like a little kid with his hand caught in the cookie jar.

“Shit,” he says quietly, “I hoped you didn't check.”

Seokmin blinks in query, letting muscle memory take him through the familiar routine of stripping off his shirt and slathering on a thick layer of sunscreen. In the little mirror behind Mingyu’s back, he can tell that it’s just leaving streaks all over, despite how much he’s trying to rub it in. “You could’ve just asked me, I would’ve said yes anyways.” 

“I know,” Mingyu pouts, “I just wanted to avoid any ‘why’ questions.”

“Well too bad,” Seokmin shrugs, giving up with the sunscreen on his front and slapping a handful on his back. He turns around to face the lockers and gestures at the sluggish white blob sliding down his spine, silently requesting for Mingyu to help him out, “you have to answer them now. Why do you wanna swap?”

“‘Cause,” Mingyu groans, hands working masterful magic over Seokmin’s back, at once a perfunctory massage and functional sunscreen application, “you know the city kids are back in town, yeah?”

Minghao flashes into his mind briefly, sending his heart catapulting into his throat, head thrumming with a rhythm inaudible to the human ear. Seokmin breathes out steady, doesn’t let his voice have a chance to crack, and gives his head a little shake to banish the thought. 

“Well,” Mingyu says mopily, interpreting Seokmin’s head shake as a negative, “uni holidays are starting. Which means they’re all coming back. Which _means_ ,” he drums on Seokmin’s back with a little rhythmic flourish to indicate that he’s all done, “Soonyoung’s back.”

“Uh,” Seokmin says, eyes widening in surprise, “okay?” There had been a terrified little part of him that had feared the syllables _Ming_ and _Hao_ were going to emerge from Mingyu’s lips but now he’s filled with nothing but vague curiosity. He hadn’t known there was a connection there. “What does that mean?” 

Mingyu shrugs uncomfortably, looking remarkably out of sorts in his tall frame. Seokmin supposes that’s understandable; Mingyu had really only shot up over the last six months, putting on height and muscle in equal quantities to the extent that his mother's group of friends had been cooing over his ever increasing handsomeness for at least two weeks, which for them is a _long_ time. Seokmin’s gap year had only been fodder for one brunch session.

“It means...” Mingyu fidgets, brushing his floppy hair back to expose the face he’s pulling. “Ugh, I don’t know. It just feels weird - I haven’t really talked to him ever since I accidentally confessed to him at his graduation.”

Seokmin’s lifeguard polo, in the midst of being pulled on, decides it’s the best time for it to get stuck over his head.

“You confessed to him at his _graduation_?” He hisses, thrashing out from under his shirt to try and see the light of day. Or really just the gross flickering fluorescence of their grimy changing rooms. “Seriously, Gyu?”

“Accidentally,” Mingyu whines and in the next second, there are firm hands guiding his head and arms through the appropriate holes so he doesn’t look like a fabric monster right out of Scooby Doo, “but then I sort of ran away and hid at home until he left town. I would do that again but I really need to keep this job.” He bites his lip and looks imploringly at Seokmin. “Please swap with me?”

Seokmin grimaces as he roots around in the front pocket of his duffel for his whistle, “Yikes…” He gropes his way through an aged receipt, dustballs and half a Happy Meal toy, pondering. “It’s been two years though, he could have forgotten about it by now. Also he might not even come to the pool - who says you’ll see him today?”

Mingyu stares at him with dead eyes, “It’s more than thirty degrees out. What else is there to do here?”

Seokmin racks his brain but comes up with nothing except for the playpen at their dingy local McDonalds, ending up with a sheepish smile, “True.”

“So you’ll do it then?” Mingyu asks pleadingly, bouncing on the balls of his feet. “There’s no chance anyone is going to be in the indoor pool when it’s this sunny out. I’ll shout you ice cream next time we go on break together. Or hot chips, whatever you want.”

Truthfully, Seokmin would’ve done it for nothing. He likes Mingyu as a coworker, likes the sun, the view of people splashing around and enjoying themselves. It’s payment enough. But well, he also likes ice cream and there’s no way he’s going to turn that down.

“Okay sure, I’ll cover you!” Seokmin chirps, stuffing his things into his locker without a care and closing the door quickly so that nothing falls out. There’s a clang as his deodorant slips out of the open compartment and hits the thin metal door, followed by subsequent muffled thumps as assumedly, all his crumpled up clothes tumble out too. Oh well, that’s a problem for future Seokmin to deal with, he thinks cheerily, ignoring Mingyu’s horrified look.

Right now, he’s got a fun-filled five hour date with the outdoor pool.

 

//

 

It’s late afternoon, two hours until Seokmin gets off, when it happens. _It_ being the arrival of a group of boys, jostling each other and bantering amongst themselves as they scan in with their pool cards and bustle into the locker rooms.

Seokmin sighs internally from his perch point. He’ll have to keep an extra special eye on that group to make sure they don’t cause any mischief - there are a bunch of small families with their kids in little floaties around in the shallow end and from the way the boys were rough housing earlier, he might have to give them a caution or two.

They don’t come out of the locker room in a pack. One of them comes swanning out first in bright red trunks, sauntering down the line of reclining chairs sheltered under greying yellow umbrellas, to claim a free one right next to Seokmin’s post. Seokmin happens to peer down at the same time that the boy squints up and oh damn, Mingyu should be glad he took precautions today.

“Hi!” The boy - Soonyoung - formerly his and Mingyu’s senior - waves jovially at him, “Seokmin, right? My mom said you worked here.”

“Oh yeah,” Seokmin laughs nervously, wishing that he and Mingyu had those secret walkie-talkies like they have in spy movies so he could warn him about the older boy’s presence, “that I do! Model employee! Been here for nearly a year now!”

“That’s super cool,” Soonyoung says, beaming as he takes a seat on the end of the chair, pale silhouette just sticking out from under the shape of the dusty large umbrella, towel crumpled up underneath him, “do you like working here?"

“I can’t complain,” Seokmin says peppily because he can’t really, “the pay’s good and it beats being stuck inside all day.”

Soonyoung makes a disgusted noise, sticking his tongue out of his mouth, “Yeah, definitely. Avoid retail at all costs kid, it’ll kill your soul.”

“Avoid F&B too,” someone chimes in, appearing out of nowhere and throwing his towel onto Soonyoung’s head much to his yells of displeasure. Seokmin blames the heat and the fact that his sister once dropped him when he was a baby, for the fact that he doesn’t recognise the voice’s owner immediately, “you’ll lose all your faith in humanity and that’d be a shame.” He disappears under the umbrella in the next second, physical figure out of sight but the weight of his gaze remains.

“Yeah, just get rich parents.” Soonyoung snorts sardonically. “Like little ol’ Junnie or Jihoon - hey! Speaking of which!” He looks around and pulls a shorter figure into his orbit, the third boy having trailed a little ways behind, nearly shoulder to shoulder with the last member of their little group. He has a head of blond hair, nearly white in the sunlight, and Seokmin recognises his old (temporary) choir conductor immediately, even if his hair’s changed quite a bit.

 “My parents aren’t rich,” the last boy says instead, pleasant and amused like this conversation’s been had before, “we’re upper-middle, guys.” He’s brunette, tall and friendly, telling by the casual wave he affords in Seokmin’s direction.

“No upper-middle family has _three_ cars,” Soonyoung insists, ripping the towel off his head and throwing it on the chair, “when are you going to admit it and become our collective sugar daddy, Junnie?”

“Never associate ‘sugar daddy’ and Junhui in one sentence ever again.” The disappeared boy from earlier groans, wandering out from underneath the umbrella and flicking Soonyoung in the head. “He’s my _cousin._ ”

“So picky Minghao,” Soonyoung sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose dramatically, “how will you ever afford your designer brands this way.”

Wait what? Minghao?

Seokmin leans as far out as he dares from his perch. He can really only see the crown of the unidentified boy’s head, features turned away from his direction as he shoots a snappy retort back Soonyoung’s way, but one glance downwards to the pointy elfish ears and Seokmin knows. It’s him.

…Shit.

How many ice creams is he going to have to buy Mingyu to get them to swap back? Well okay, maybe Minghao hasn’t noticed him yet! And Seokmin can hide up here in his perch with his sunnies over his eyes, take a nap and while away the last two hours of his shift, cloaked in invisibility. Bad luck to anyone who needs saving in that time.

As if Minghao has a Seokmin Sense, cued right into his most innermost thoughts, he whips around at that point and meets Seokmin’s eyes. It feels more anti-climatic than he imagined when Minghao tips his chin in Seokmin’s direction, head cocked to the side with a little smirk. The earth doesn’t rumble and shake and crack into two and time flows like normal. Kids still (inadvisedly) play chasey around the pool edge, sunscreen and chlorine still saturate his nostrils and Minghao still stands there, cute squinty eyes against the sun and chest bared to the world. 

“Hey.”

“Hi!” Seokmin squeaks, too loud and too high. His face is starting to flame in a way that’s got nothing to do with the heat. He clears his throat nervously and shimmies down the ladder in a flash, making sure to keep his distance once his two feet are firmly on the ground. He begins backing off towards the entrance to the indoor pool as he makes his excuses, intent on swapping his roster back with Mingyu. Mingyu can marinate in awkward silence for two hours right? That’s what he does best! “You know, I would love to catch up but I actually gotta run - “

“Wait -” Minghao takes half a step forwards and almost like he’s been compelled. Seokmin retreats the same distance, “Seokmin, behind you - “

Seokmin wobbles on the precipice of the pool. A child shrieks and runs past, arms flailing as they dart around Seokmin’s legs, in hot pursuit of their little friends yelping as they round the edge. His mind says to tell them no running near the poolside but his body’s instincts come first, jerking him backwards and letting gravity do the rest. 

If the crash into the water weren’t already a shock to his system, it’d be the smack of his head on the bottom of the shallow end that does it, temporarily paralysing his reactions. Stunned, Seokmin’s air leaves his lungs in a pretty spiral of bubbles and he watches blankly as they swirl to the surface.

“Why’s he not standing up?”

“Someone get help!”

“Jihoon, go in and save him!”

“I’m not fucking certified - you’re the one with the Bronze! Find the other lifeguard, he’s bound to be here somewhere - maybe in the indoor - “

This is it, the ironic death of a lifeguard who drowned in the shallow end. _And_ he never got to eat his mom’s chicken wings ever again.

Seokmin finds his eyes closing involuntarily. He just needs to take a short rest and right here on the pool floor seems like a good place.

“For fucks sake - “

There’s a splash and then the curve of wiry arms manipulating his pliant body around their frame. Frantic grunting and tugging and then they break surface, Seokmin’s saviour propping his head up with a strong hand.

“Jesus Seok, c’mon - “ More arms around him, pulling him up, wet and dazed, until he’s flat on his back on sun-warmed concrete. “Okay, let’s uh, fuck what’s next? Is he bleeding? Do we do CPR for that? Shit I forgot oh my God okay okay let’s - “

Seokmin’s eyes crack open just a little, enough to see what looks like Mingyu’s face coming way too near his for comfort.

He convulses, choking out what feels like five lungfuls of water, and effectively bats Mingyu’s face away from his with limp rubber arms.

“Not today.” He wheezes, thumping himself weakly in the chest. Mingyu whines and grouches a bit but sits him up into a position that helps him expel the rest of the water (though he does smack him on the back a little harder than necessary).

“You should be honoured to get CPR from me,”  Mingyu says primly as he helps Seokmin to his feet, steering him off in the direction of the locker rooms with Seokmin’s arm loped around his neck. He turns and gives the group of boys left behind an apologetic wave via the proxy of Seokmin’s limp hand, “tons of people have fake-drowned to try and get lip-contact with me." 

“Maybe they were just trying to avoid you beneath the water.” Seokmin slurs out, still vaguely stunned by the incident.

Mingyu _tsks_ irritatedly but doesn’t punch him like he usually would to initiate their middle-grade slapstick, sitting Seokmin in their medical bay to fuss until he’s sure that there’s no concussion or actual injury apart from a bump to the back of his head. By the time they re-emerge, Seokmin holding a bag of ice to the back of his head, Minghao and co are gone.

“Well that was a disaster.” Seokmin says glumly. Even the thought of a good dinner can’t cheer him up now, both in the face of his thorough humiliation and mother’s inevitable impending lecture about taking care of himself on the job.

Mingyu sighs but then looks down at his phone, a delighted grin growing across his face, “Speak for yourself - Soonyoung just messaged me!” He preens excitedly and waggles his eyebrows like a class-A douche. “Guess I must’ve looked super cool saving you.”

Uh huh, as if _Mingyu_ was the one ‘saving him’. Seokmin would know those arms anywhere.

He stares at Mingyu, tired and drained. On a normal day, he’d brush it off with his usual bright grin and a hearty pat on the back but today has drained all of the sunshine out of him. “Eat a floatie.” He says flatly and pushes Mingyu into the deep end, clothes and all.

 

//

 

From: Hao

_are you okay_

To: Hao

_im fine !!!_

_fine and dandy!!_

_no damage except for my pride HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA_  

Seokmin stares down despondently at his sent text. He probably overdid it. He should lighten the tension some other way… A joke?

To Hao:

_guess im not really a lifeguard haha more like a deathguard hahaha_

He pauses right after he’s pressed the send button, staring unblinkingly at the screen.

“Wait that’s not funny.” He voices out loud and then repeats himself again, louder and more panicked as his fingers race to salvage himself. “Wait fuck no how do I fix this fuuuu- “

To: Minghao

_wait i mean its just me dying not like kids and stuff !!_

_hahaha xD_

He fights back the urge to wail melodramatically into the air, mostly because the Murphys sent over a noise complaint last time he did and personally apologising to them was humiliating and yeah, he’s had enough of that for today.

Instead he groans miserably and chucks his phone all the way to the foot of his bed, burying his face into his pillow and screaming nice and loud. _It’s all ruined_ , a tinny voice screams in his head, sounding a lot like Jihoon back when he was the appointed temporary conductor of the school choir, replacing their hospitalised teacher, _all fucking ruined!_

This is really not working out the way he wants it to.

Somewhere in the folds of his duvet, there’s a beep and his screen glows with a new message.

From: Minghao

_neither of those sounds that great to me_

_you’re more useful alive you know_

Seokmin bites his lip, flushing to his ears.

To: Minghao

_thanks?_

He doesn’t end up getting a reply for the next five minutes, no amount of flicking through their message thread or exiting and re-opening the app, helps to assuage the niggling fear he’s somehow done something wrong again.

He’s just about to give up for the night, pulling up a browser window to idly search for a new webtoon to flick through when his phone vibrates with a new message.

It’s from Minghao.

 

//

 

“You’re not meant to be in there!” Seokmin blurts instinctually, nearly wobbling off the top of the public pool’s gate. 

Minghao, bobbing on the top of the dark water, casting a pale figure, lovely and haunting, cracks an eye open to look at him.

“Neither are you.” He says, amused.

Seokmin squints at him, hunched over the top of the gate. If he lets go, he might fall and the ground is looking awfully hard and capable-of-bone-breaking tonight. “You said there was someone trespassing at the pool and I’d better come check it out.” It’s meant to come out accusing but ends up soft and uncertain at the edges, words catching like cotton fuzz in his mouth.

Minghao hums, pulling himself lazily to the pool edge, “I didn’t lie.”

“You also didn’t say it was _you_ who was trespassing.” Seokmin mumbles. He clenches his eyes shut and gingerly lowers himself down across the other side of the barrier, goosebumps pricking on the upperside of his exposed arms when a light gust dances past. When he lands, he stands still for a moment to catch his breath, casting a wary eye around the pool to banish any irrational thoughts about any of the closing staff still hanging around.

The floor is still vaguely warm under his feet but that’s about it for any similarities between the pool during opening hours and closing. Where the pool was bustling and crammed to the brim with every sort their town has to offer, now it’s just him and Minghao in this space. The floaties are tucked away in the back, grated shutter drawn tight over the little tuckshop area, and lights powered down so it’s only the moon that illuminates them, rippling out in broken refractions from Minghao’s slow kicks. For someone like Seokmin who loves the day, being here at night makes his heart race for all the wrong reasons, only one of which is his boss potentially finding out.  

Knowing Minghao though, he probably thinks it’s romantic.

“But you knew what I meant.” Minghao says quietly. His expression is hard to make out but Seokmin can see the way his mouth turns up at one corner, at once smug and pleased, “Otherwise you wouldn’t have worn your swim trunks.”

Seokmin looks down at his dark blue trunks, almost in surprise like he forgot he’d been wearing them at all, “Oh yeah.”

Minghao giggles, clear in a way that cuts through the murkiness of the dark, “Get in the pool with me?”

Seokmin cautiously picks his way over to the poolside after shedding his slippers near his usual post, letting the shallow water lap over his toes.

“Minghao,” he murmurs, tentative and uncharacteristically careful, “we’re really not supposed to be here...”

“Seokmin,” Minghao says, mimicking his tone mockingly, combing his wet hair back from his face and staring up at Seokmin with dark eyes. He wraps delicate fingers around his ankle but doesn't tug, “get in the pool with me.”

“Okay.” Seokmin says, assent rising too easily, and sits down where he was standing earlier, right next to where Minghao is half holding on, half treading water. The back of his trunks are starting to soak through. He kicks his feet, stirring up the surface but doesn’t make any move to slip in and Minghao sighs frustratedly at that, letting go of the pool edge to elbow his way between Seokmin’s legs, using his thighs as his new hold.

Seokmin watches him complacently even as his mouth dries up inside like Mrs Murphy's withering gardenias.

“I missed you.” He states plainly, studying Seokmin’s face intently. A sudden wave of guilt washes over Seokmin and he directs his eyes downwards, avoiding Minghao’s gaze. “I can’t believe I had to go to your _work_ to see you and you _still_ tried to avoid me.”

“I wasn’t avoiding you…” Seokmin mumbles, toying with the shallow layer of water on the edge that filters away into the grate, “it’s just busy.

“Busy.” Minghao repeats flatly. “Too busy to see _your own boyfriend_ when we haven’t met up physically for like, a year?”

Minghao subconsciously tightens his grip on Seokmin’s thighs and Seokmin sucks in a sharp breath, accidental whine slipping out. Minghao notices his discomfort immediately and lets up, treading more water to keep him afloat and scratching his blunt nails gently over the outside of Seokmin’s thighs to soothe him. He's not good at this, any of these romantic delicacies despite his affinity for movies depicting them. Seokmin knows because Minghao's said so on more than one occasion, soft apologies for missing his calls for not being able to come back home during the mid-year break for not being able to hold him, drifting over the phone line as Seokmin fights to stay awake in his bed.

It stresses Minghao out, unnecessarily in Seokmin's opinion, not being able to live up to his own romantic ideals. 

“Sorry,” his boyfriend says frustratedly, looking away with strawberry tinted ears, “sorry, sorry. I’m not, y’know, accusing you of anything. I just,” he huffs, suddenly pouty, “we got together at the worst time so we could only Skype and stuff whilst I was away so I was really looking forward to coming back and being able to like, do actual boyfriend things with you. But then you just kept dodging me and,” he groans helplessly, “ugh, you nearly _drowned_ today.”

Seokmin nearly bursts out laughing at Minghao's downturned moue, the grin twitching the corners of his mouth turning tender when Minghao scowl gets deeper at his reaction, “You saved me though.”

“Yeah well,” lines etch their way into Minghao’s brow, “your stupid coworker wouldn't have.”

“Yeah well,” Seokmin hums, heart somehow lightened, “I wouldn't have fallen in if I wasn't being dumb in the first place. You’re sort of right, I was avoiding you but um," he swishes his finger nervously through the water, "not for the reasons you might think.” 

Minghao makes an inquiring noise at the back of his throat, cocking his head to the side.

Seokmin cringes, features tight with tension and embarrassment, “I just thought... It's dumb, okay but like, maybe you’d gotten too good for me.” He ventures a peek at Minghao’s expression and it’s not exactly encouraging the knot in his chest to loosen up. Seokmin licks his lips, nerves dissolving his filter. “Like, just because all the moms were talking about how fancy you’d gotten and your instagram is so cool now and you have all these nice clothes and outfits and _friends_ and maybe you met someone in the city that’s cooler than me and dresses more like you and actually _knows_ what they want to do with their life so...” Seokmin covers his face with his hands, honesty overflowing to the brim in a soft confession, “I think I got scared of seeing you again. That I wouldn’t recognise you or that you changed so much that I couldn't keep up anymore.”

“Seok…” Minghao says, fondness bleeding through in a way that Seokmin has never felt so intimately before. He feels fingers around his wrists, peeling his makeshift blindfold away to reveal Minghao’s face right in front of his, nearly no distance between their noses. Seokmin _eeps_ and nearly jolts back but Minghao holds him there, pinning him in place with the arms he’s using to raise himself out of the water. “Seok... C’mon, look me in the eyes, okay?”

Minghao’s gaze regales him fondly, dark pupils boring into his. Seokmin swallows.

“The city gave me the chance to change some things on the outside,” Minghao confesses, leaning forward a little to bump their noses together sweetly, “but I promise you, I'm still the same inside.” He breathes out shakily and Seokmin can feel it ghosting across his lips, “I’m still the same Minghao who told you I liked you, back during New Years because the fireworks were pretty and the moment felt right, and I’m still the same Minghao who’s liked you ever since you insisted on giving Hoshi a proper burial in primary school.”

“He was a good hamster,” Seokmin says seriously, pressing his lips together. Sometimes if he wants to cry on command, he still dredges up that traumatic memory of finding Hoshi on his back after recess, never to run on his squeaky wheel again, “He deserved it.”

“God,” Minghao closes his eyes and bites back a laugh though his shaking shoulders give him away, “you’re so ridiculous.”

“I’m so ridiculous but you like me anyways?” Seokmin asks, hopeful. Minghao just rolls his eyes and moves in closer to slot their lips together chastely, a lingering peck.

 “What do you think?” He mutters wryly, eyes still closed but hands migrating by touch to Seokmin’s shoulders.

“I think…” Seokmin cups Minghao's jaw with one of his hands and lets himself smile properly, finally, eyes and lips curving delightfully to bring a different light source to the poolside. Everything feels brighter all of a sudden, “I think I’m a little dumb. And that I’m lucky to have you.”

“Yeah?” Minghao arches an eyebrow and smirks, moonlight in his eyes. His face suddenly splits into a grin, wide and unabashed, and uses Seokmin’s shoulders as a launchpad to throw himself backwards into the middle of the pool, half-heartedly treading water as he calls out to Seokmin.

“Then be a good boy and come have me.”

**Author's Note:**

> if there are any actual lifeguards reading this i am so sorry.


End file.
